Release International welcomes a new report by UK parliamentarians highlighting the religious element behind much of the growing violence in Nigeria. The report warns of the risk of an unfolding genocide and calls for UK aid to be linked to efforts to protect Nigerian villagers from attacks by Islamist extremists.
The new report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide? is the result of an investigation by 100 UK parliamentarians from a wide range of political parties.
It describes attacks on churches and Christians which killed more than 1,000 in 2019. A partner of Release International, which supports victims of violence, estimates 30,000 have been killed since the conflict began in the 1980s. The United Nations put the death toll at 27,000.
In recent years, Fulani militants have taken over from Boko Haram terrorists as the number-one killers in the region. These herdsmen, searching for grazing lands reduced by global warming, have slaughtered farmers and driven them from their homes.
‘But this is not just about resources,’ says Paul Robinson, the Chief Executive of Release International.
‘This report acknowledges the religious dimension to much of the violence, which can no longer be ignored. This report shows these attacks can no longer be simplistically caricatured and written off as “herder-farmer violence”.’
According to the APPG report, many of those attacks have been carried out by militants shouting ‘Allah u Akhbar’ [Allah is greater] and ‘Destroy the infidels.’ The heavily armed extremists have destroyed more than 500 churches in Benue State alone.
The APPG report urges the world to face up to this religious dimension, however uncomfortable: ‘Commentators must not shy away from describing conflicts as motivated by religion or ideology when that is the case.’
Adds Paul Robinson: ‘Release joins with British parliamentarians in urging the world to wake up to the unrelenting Islamist violence in Nigeria.’
The report argues that in killing and driving out Christian villagers, the Fulani militants, wittingly or unwittingly, are serving the same agenda as Boko Haram. The stated aim of the terrorist group Boko Haram is to turn Nigeria into an Islamist state. Its spokesman has declared: ‘This war is against Christians.’
The APPG report stated: ‘While not necessarily sharing an identical vision, some Fulani herders have adopted a comparable strategy to Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and demonstrated a clear intent to target Christians and symbols of Christian identity such as churches.’
In the APPG report, Co-Chair Baroness Caroline Cox said: ‘While the underlying causes of violence are complex, the asymmetry and escalation of attacks by well-armed Fulani militia upon these predominately Christian communities are stark and must be acknowledged.
‘Such atrocities cannot be attributed just to desertification, climate change or competition for resources, as [the UK] Government have claimed.’
And Vice Chair of the APPG, Fiona Bruce MP, added: ‘Targeted attacks against churches and heightening religious tensions indicate that religious identity plays a role in the farmer-herder conflict.’
‘These attacks are taking place with impunity,’ says Paul Robinson. ‘And there is a growing religious dimension to these attacks. Nigeria must act to stop the violence.’
Release has been providing support, including trauma counselling, to victims of violence in Nigeria. Through its international network of missions, Release International is active in some 25 countries around the world, supporting pastors, Christian prisoners and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice.
Video and audio reports of a recent attack by Fulani militants are available here, with full transcripts here
There has been an announcement this morning that the UK Department for International Development, DfID (government ministry) is being closed, merged into the Foreign Office and its budget redistributed. Whilst this is a good thing regarding misdirected aid, to China and India, for example, it also means an extra hurdle for aid to poorer parts of the world that little benefits British trade and geopolitical interests, and details of the decision, such as where the budget is actually going now, are scant.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has suggested he is concerned about the plight of persecuted Christians elsewhere in the world, however it appears his government doesn’t give a fig for actual Christian values, such as protecting the rights of the unborn child, the sanctity of marriage, the core Christian activities of churches (charity work is permissible, but actual church services not so; cinemas and zoos will be allowed to re-open first). Then there is the recent appointment of an apparently dishonest (lying) archbishop, in which either May or Johnson had a role (the PM vets the candidates, before the _very_ short list goes to the palace).
If tightly-focused support was given by the UK to Nigerian Christians, it would make a huge difference at many levels. But, with an increasing Islamic presence in both government and parliament, and the UK’s record of cozying-up to quite nasty places who fund Islamic terror, such as Saudi, although fine words may be spoken the vicious cowards of Boko Haram probably have nothing to fear.
Thus there are huge questions, deserving of urgent prayer, over how much attention he will pay to any parliamentary opinion on this, also how united parliamentarians might be in pressing the case.
It is a concern. Many Nigerians have contacts and relatives in Britain, and Nigeria itself has connections as a Commonwealth country.
If Nigeria were to be taken over by an Islamic theocracy, it would cause all sorts of difficulties to Britain. PM Johnson and his government need to think about this now.
The Islamic groups in Nigeria (including Boko Harem) are engaging in terrorism and genocide.
The civilised nations of the world should combine to take action against them and those who finance them.